Ocean

"Scary" Books and Why I Love Them - Love Writing Them as Well As Reading Them, and Melissa Rosenberg's Twilight Books

Just having posted a question for Melissa Rosenberg, celebrated author of the Twilight books, I am simultaneously DVRing several scary movies, researching The Woman in White, the classic tale that started a ghost craze, and pondering why all this otherworldly spookiness is so appealing to me, at least.
It's Halloween, the sun is setting, and I'm not doing a gig tonight. Instead, I'm on a tropical island with my rescued pets, not editing the final two chapters in my newest book, and thinking about how it all began - my love affair with horror.
Both my Grandmas and my little Great Grandmas were instrumental in introducing me to thrillers and possibly true tales of terror.
Natural storytellers, one of them would gather the children, despite protestations of our own parents, whenever we went to visit in the old country, and would proceed to mesmerize us with frightening vignettes, handed down, of lost souls, wandering spirits, and of madmen lurking somewhere between life and death, the return of vagrant and vandalizing restless ones, and monstrous beings, concoctions of at least one or two wild species. Much of her lore was original and all of it was acted out, voices and all.
She was the best, most enthralling tale-teller I've ever witnessed.
Although the fright she'd inspire was real, the thrill at being scared was addictive, and even unable to sleep when abandoned to our rooms, later in the night, the stimulation of our imaginations was so inspiring that we'd gladly go back for even headier doses as often as we could.
Alas, she's gone now, but the image in the firelight of her passionate eyes, lilting speech, and her gesticulating arms in that wicker rocker as she'd enthrall us all will remain with me, along with the memory of trying my hardest to contain every bit of my feet underneath the blanket we'd lain on the floor while we listened to her, lest some stray and omninous power might escape from her story into the room and yank me away to doom and gloom!
For me, this was a rich beginning of my relationship with mysteries, thrillers and with horror works, and later on, as I discovered mythology, devoured history as if it were the most exciting field in the world, and traveled the world, I gleaned even more stories and further whetted my appetite for the unknown.
I love Melissa Rosenberg's writing, and she has brought timeless tales in line with hip gothic contemporary literature, appealing to all of us.
I write scary books too, and I hope mine will continue to thrill audiences for many years to come, as hers will!

October 31, 2009 3:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Add Comment